PARTNERSHIP EXCELLENCE
Partner of the Year
Recognizes a company that exemplifies the best in the industry. They embody an exceptional service mindset and also foster a strong, positive employee and company culture. This company prioritize these core beliefs even when faced with market disruptions and challenging decisions. They demonstrate comprehensive excellence, including impactful philanthropy, a customer-first approach, and a thriving employee culture, all supported by measurable results.
The Retailer's Favorite
Recognizes the partner retailers genuinely love working with, the company that is responsive, dependable, easy to work with and there when it matters. These are the partners retailers trust, turn to for advice and wish all their business relationships worked like.
Best Long-Standing Partnership
Celebrates a retailer and solution provider whose relationship has thrived for at least five years. Through changing priorities, challenges and opportunities, the partnership has continued to evolve, innovate and deliver meaningful value because of the trust and commitment built between them.
Best Kept Secret
Recognizes an exceptional solution provider delivering meaningful results for retailers without yet having the industry recognition it deserves. This award shines a light on companies whose capabilities, customer success and potential exceed their current visibility.
Rising Star
Celebrates an emerging solution provider bringing a fresh approach to a meaningful retail challenge. Whether through new technology, a different business model or a better way of solving an established problem, this company is demonstrating early impact and significant potential.
The VIP Challenge Award 2027: From Possibility to Performance
Recognizes a retailer and solution provider that turned a significant business challenge into measurable impact by applying technology, including AI where appropriate, in a practical and meaningful way. This award celebrates moving beyond experimentation and hype to solve a real business problem through ingenuity, agility and strong partnership.
Retail Transformation of the Year
Recognizes a retail company that achieved meaningful, lasting business transformation through an exceptional partnership with one or more solution providers. The transformation may involve technology, operations, customer experience, culture or business model, but must demonstrate significant and sustainable impact. Nominations may be submitted by either the retailer or the solution provider, but vendor-led entries must have the retailer's agreement and participation.
RETAIL IMPACT & INNOVATION
Best Retail Intelligence Solution
Recognizes solutions that transform complex retail data, signals and feedback into clear understanding and actionable intelligence. The strongest solutions help retailers understand what is happening, why it matters and where to act next.
Best Merchandising, Pricing & Inventory Solution
Recognizes solutions that help retailers make smarter decisions about what to sell, where to sell it, how much inventory to carry and how products should be priced or promoted, improving product performance, profitability, availability and inventory productivity.
Best Product Discovery & Intelligence Solution
Recognizes solutions that help customers find, understand and select the right products while making retailers' product information more discoverable and useful. This includes search, recommendations, product intelligence, catalog enrichment and emerging AI-powered discovery experiences.
Best Commerce Platform & Enablement Solution
Recognizes solutions that provide the infrastructure and capabilities retailers need to transact and grow across today's commerce ecosystem. From platforms and marketplaces to orchestration, integration and composable capabilities, these solutions make commerce more flexible, connected and scalable.
Best Customer Engagement & Marketing Solution
Recognizes solutions that help retailers better understand, reach, engage and retain customers through smarter communication, personalization, loyalty, activation and marketing across the customer lifecycle.
Best Store Operations Solution
Recognizes solutions that make physical retail stores smarter, more efficient and more effective. From inventory visibility and task execution to automation, store technology and operational intelligence, this award celebrates solutions that improve how stores perform.
Best Retail Workforce Solution
Recognizes solutions and services that help retailers build, develop and enable a stronger workforce. From workforce management and associate technology to communication, training, leadership development and performance, this award celebrates approaches that help retail people and teams perform at their best.
Best Supply Chain & Fulfillment Solution
Recognizes solutions that improve how retailers plan, source, move, fulfill and deliver products. This award celebrates meaningful advances in supply chain visibility, resilience, efficiency and execution from origin through fulfillment and the customer's final mile.
Best Transaction & Payment Experience
Recognizes solutions that make completing a retail transaction simpler, smarter, more flexible and more connected. From payment acceptance and checkout to orchestration, alternative payments, embedded capabilities and transaction optimization, this award celebrates solutions that improve both customer experience and retail performance.
Best Loss Prevention, Fraud & Security Solution
Recognizes solutions that protect retailers, their customers, employees, products and profitability from loss, fraud and security threats across physical and digital environments through smarter prevention, detection, intervention and risk management.
Best Retail Services & Transformation Partner
Recognizes service providers that help retailers turn strategy into successful execution and measurable business results. From advisory and transformation strategy to systems integration, implementation and specialized expertise, this award celebrates partners that bring deep retail knowledge, strong collaboration and exceptional execution to complex initiatives.
PEOPLE & INDUSTRY
Retail Partner: Person of the Year
Recognizes a retail executive who demonstrates what exceptional partnership looks like from the retailer side of the table. This leader combines vision and business leadership with openness, trust and respect for partners, creating relationships that deliver stronger outcomes for everyone involved.
Bridge Builder: Person of the Year
Recognizes a retail industry leader whose career includes substantial retail experience along with experience in a solution provider role. Whether they are currently with a retailer or a solution provider, experience and perspective enable them to bridge the retailer and solution provider worlds. They use that understanding to foster empathy, transparency and trust, raising the standard for how the two sides work together.
The Retail Voice Award
Recognizes individuals and organizations that use their expertise and platform to inform, educate, challenge and elevate the retail industry. Through media, analysis, content, advocacy or thought leadership, they turn knowledge and perspective into meaningful industry impact.
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